500 Dayschronicles the eighteen months following 9/11 and lays bare the harrowing decisions, deceptions, and delusions that changed America and the world forever in 500 DAYS: Secrets and Lies in the Terror Wars (On-sale September 18, 2012; Touchstone, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, $30.00 Hardcover; 978-1-4516-6938-1).

The book is epic in scope, a story that unfolds with the page-turning urgency of a thriller to reveal how the secrets and lies from those early days continue to drive modern developments in the terror wars—from the upcoming Guantanamo trial of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, to the plans to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan, to President Obama’s orders targeting Bin Laden and other high-ranking al Qaeda leaders in Pakistan, to al Qaeda’s recent plans to bring down airliners with bombs that can be easily missed by metal detectors.

Through a fly-on-the-wall style and true-to-life dialogue, 500 Days bring readers behind closed doors and into the company of the powerful and the powerless. From the Oval Office to Number 10 Downing Street, from the makeshift cells at Guantanamo Bay to the CIA Counterterrorist Center, from remote al-Qaeda training camps to the brutal torture chambers of Syria, 500 Days traces the actions that determined every aspect of the terror wars.

Relying on over six hundred hours of interviews and thousands of documents, 500 Days reveals never-before-reported details about detainee treatment and rendition, warrantless wiretapping, conflicts between Washington and London, the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, the anthrax attacks, and more.

“With the pacing of a suspense novel, award-winning journalist Eichenwald’s richly researched account . . . [is] a breathtaking inspection of the war on terror that began on 9/11 and reverberates to this day.”—Booklist, starred review

“A blow-by-blow, episodic reconstruction of the fallout from 9/11 in the highest spheres of terrorist strategy . . . demonstrating literally how the anti-terrorist hysteria in the United States, and the hatred of America and general global paranoia, forged the “trauma that haunts the world to this day.”—Kirkus Reviews